Understanding Mindful Eating:

Mindful eating involves being fully present in the moment during meals, engaging all our senses, and cultivating a non-judgmental awareness of our thoughts and emotions related to food. It encourages us to slow down, pay attention, and make conscious choices that honor our bodies’ needs.

The Benefits of Mindful Eating:

1. Improved Digestion: By savoring each bite and thoroughly chewing our food, we aid the digestion process, allowing our bodies to extract maximum nutrients.
2. Weight Management: Mindful eating helps us recognize true hunger and satiety cues, preventing overeating and promoting a healthy body weight.
3. Enhanced Enjoyment: When we take the time to truly appreciate the flavors, textures, and aromas of our food, we derive greater pleasure from our meals.
4. Emotional Well-being: Mindful eating encourages a deeper connection between our minds and bodies, helping us manage stress, emotional eating, and promote a positive relationship with food.

Tips for Mindful Eating:

1. Slow Down: Set aside dedicated time for meals, free from distractions like screens or work. Eat at a leisurely pace, savoring each bite and fully experiencing the flavors and textures of the food.
2. Engage Your Senses: Take a moment to appreciate the visual appeal of your meal. Notice the colors, shapes, and presentation. Inhale the aromas, allowing them to awaken your appetite.
3. Chew Mindfully: Chew your food thoroughly, savoring the taste and texture. Not only does this aid digestion, but it also allows you to fully experience and enjoy the meal.
4. Listen to Your Body: Tune in to your body’s hunger and satiety signals. Eat when you are truly hungry and stop when you feel comfortably satisfied. Avoid mindless snacking or emotional eating.
5. Practice Gratitude: Before you begin eating, take a moment to express gratitude for the nourishment and the effort that went into preparing the meal. Cultivating gratitude fosters a positive mindset towards food.
6. Mindful Snacking: Apply the principles of mindful eating to your snacks as well. Choose nutritious options that align with your body’s needs, and savor each bite mindfully.

Cultivating Mindful Eating Habits:

1. Mindful Meal Planning: Plan your meals mindfully, incorporating a variety of flavors, textures, and nutrient-rich ingredients. Consider the balance between indulgence and nourishment.
2. Mindful Cooking: Engage in the cooking process with mindfulness, paying attention to the ingredients, flavors, and cooking techniques. Infuse love and intention into the meals you prepare.
3. Mindful Eating Community: Join or create a community of like-minded individuals who are also practicing mindful eating. Share experiences, recipes, and support each other’s journeys.

In a world of constant distractions, embracing mindful eating allows us to reconnect with the joy of nourishing our bodies and souls. By practicing mindful eating, we can develop a healthier relationship with food, improve digestion, manage our weight, and promote overall well-being. Remember, it’s not just about what we eat but how we eat. So, let us embark on this transformative journey towards savoring each meal, listening to our bodies, and nurturing ourselves through the art of mindful eating.

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There are several reasons why people don’t stick to their New Year’s resolutions. One common reason is that the resolutions are too vague or unrealistic. For example, resolving to “lose weight” or “exercise more” is fine, but it’s important to be specific about how much weight you want to lose and how often you plan to exercise. Without a clear plan, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or lose motivation.

Another reason people don’t stick to their resolutions is that they try to do too much too soon. If you’re used to being sedentary, it’s unrealistic to expect that you’ll suddenly be able to run a marathon or hit the gym every day. It’s important to start small and gradually build up to your goals.

And finally, you need to have a strong enough reason for making the change. If you’re not fully committed to your resolution, it’s easy to lose motivation when things get tough. It’s important to really think about why you want to make this change and what it will mean for your life.

So, how can you set yourself up for success and make lasting positive changes in your life? Here are a few tips:

1. Set specific, achievable goals. Instead of resolving to “lose weight,” resolve to lose 10 pounds in the next three months. This gives you a clear target to work towards and makes it easier to track your progress.
2. Start small and gradually build up. If you want to start exercising more, start by walking for 20 minutes a day and gradually increase the intensity and duration of your workouts as you become more comfortable.
3. Find a support system. Whether it’s a friend, a family member, or a support group, having someone to encourage you and hold you accountable can make a big difference in your success.
4. Make a plan and stick to it. Set aside specific times for your workouts and make a schedule that you can stick to.
5. Be consistent. The key to forming a new habit is to do it consistently over time. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away – it takes time to see progress.
6. Be patient and kind to yourself. Change is hard and it’s normal to have setbacks. Don’t beat yourself up if you slip up – just get back on track as soon as you can.

In conclusion, while it’s natural to want to make positive changes in our lives, it’s important to be realistic and set ourselves up for success. By setting specific, achievable goals, starting small, finding a support system, making a plan, and being consistent and patient, we can form new habits and make lasting positive changes in our wellbeing. So, it is important to be consistent, patient, and kind to ourselves while we are trying to form new habits.

The post Why New Years Resolutions Tend to Fail appeared first on garten.

This box is curated with various items and snacks that help to de-stress and calm the mind, including a variety of gluten-free snacks, herbal tea, roll-on essential oils, hand sanitizer, and a gift card for 2 Months Free of Welnys TV.

Depending on your location, your Zen Box can include:

Earth Therapeutics Anti-Stress Sinus Pillow: Filled with flax seed and a special stress-relieving aroma-therapeutic blend of herbal essences, this SINUS PILLOW is designed to calm and comfort both the body and the mind. Ergonomically designed with an adjustable head strap, the Anti-Stress Sinus Pillow enfolds you in its comforting embrace to relax and soothe. The balmy mind-calming blend of chamomile, lavender, and citrus completes and enhances these physical benefits by offering a totally relaxing, sensory experience. Use it Warm over the forehead to soothe and relieve sinuses and tension headaches, or use it Cool to soothe tired, strained, puffy eyes.

Aura Cacia Chill-Pill Essential Oil Roll-On: With a simple, roll-on application, these blends of essential oils and apricot kernel oil are perfect for safely applying to the skin for a variety of benefits—without leaving behind an oily feel. To inspire balance and calm, apply to temples, wrists and inner elbows.

Aura Cacia Hand Sanitizer – Unscented: Hand Sanitizers are an ideal choice for the moments you don’t have access to soap and water. Formulated in compliance with FDA standards and CDC recommendations, Aura Cacia Hand Sanitizers effectively kill 99.9% of common germs and do not contain methanol. Each hand sanitizer is made with 80% alcohol content to effectively disinfect hands, and glycerin to help prevent drying out skin.

Aura Cacia Mellow Mix: Featuring lavender and sandalwood essential oils, is expertly blended to inspire a sense of peace and calm. Wind down from a tough day by using this effective combination of oils in a diffusion, room spray or massage oil.

Tazo Chamomile Tea: A sip of blooming chamomile tea to help you unwind at the end of the day. This herbal tea blend is carefully presented in 20 individually wrapped tea bags that preserve its properties as a soothing, relaxing, and calming tea, making it ideal as a sleep tea.

2 Months Free of Welnys TV Virtual Programming: Wellness From Anywhere. Online classes taught by real people, for real people. Stream everything from meditation to Tai Chi on your phone or laptop.

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Becoming physically active is a great way to gain stress management skills and promote overall well being. Pair your activities with goals or challenges and you’ll be excelling in no time. Remember folks, consistency is key here so ease into it. Some great activities to try that are free and easy to start include walking, running, cycling, and yoga. 

2. CONNECT

Healthy relationships promote a healthy well being. Right now it might be hard to get out to the local meetup without concern for the safety of yourself and others. Most of us are lucky enough to have access to the internet which is jam packed with digital platforms for connecting. One of the most popular recently has been the Quarantine Karaoke page on Facebook which is a live stream feed of quarioke.

3. LEARN

Taking the time to learn something new promotes self growth, aids in self confidence, and may even lead to activating new neural-pathways in the brain, especially if it’s been a while since you have taken the time to add a new practice to your routine. One great way to start on a new learning path is by auditing your schedule first to clear cut free time and devise a master plan for practice time and execution. 

4. GIVE

“Giving has been proven to decrease blood pressure and reduce stress. This reduction promotes longer life and better health. Giving promotes social connection. Studies show that when you give to others, your generosity is often continued down the line to someone else, or returned to you.” Research shows that those who volunteer live longer and have happier lives. Charitable giving delivers a host of benefits to the body and brain. Regardless of whether you give your time, money, or energy. 

5. BE MINDFUL

Maintaining attention to the present moment can improve your mental well being and play a big role in stress management by reducing thoughts outside of the present moment and the tasks at hand. There have been countless studies on the benefits of a mindfulness practice and it’s standard practice for most high performing individuals. One of the immediate benefits is a deep sense of calm, and the ability to schedule and execute tasks with a deeper attention to detail.

Written by Brendan Terranova

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We at garten want to equip you with some simple ways to support the development of serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that supports mood regulation, memory, and healthy digestion. 90% of serotonin is produced in our intestines. With the seasons changing in an-everything-but-normal year, it’s likely we could use a little boost in things that make us feel good.

Here are 5 tips to boost your serotonin levels:

1. Exercise daily – outside is even better! We all know we should move more as part of our health. If you don’t have a regular exercise routine, start by taking a 30-minute walk daily. One trick that works is building rules like no coffee before your workout is done. Give it a try and see how you feel! 
   
2. Stay hydrated to support gut health. Drinking enough water is challenging when you’re in back to back zoom calls and juggling life, but just like plants need water to survive, we need water to function properly. Ideally, we should be drinking half of our body weight in ounces daily. If that’s too much, start by making sure you’re finishing one bottle a day, then move to two, and keep building up to your goal. 
   
3. Eat serotonin rich foods such as salmon, sweet potatoes, blueberries, and bananas. A diet rich in L-tryptophan is especially beneficial. Foods rich in nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, folic acid, fish oils, vitamins C and B6 help us use serotonin more effectively. 
   
4. Try a meditation practice. At garten, we take 20 minutes daily for a Purposeful Pause. Many of our teammates use this time to meditate and it helps keep us focused and productive. It’s also a great way to reduce stress and keep your serotonin levels up.
   
5. Take time to play. As adults, we often think we don’t have time to play or that it’s simply unproductive and useless. However, more and more research is coming out that proves play is vital to problem-solving, creativity, and relationship building. This week, take time to do something that brings you joy.

Our fall snack rotation includes snacks with ingredients that help support a good mood. Be on the lookout for those snacks and work to incorporate them into your regular diet. 

While you’re building your meal plan, add this recipe to your rotation. Snap a picture of your plated dish, tag us on social media, and use #gutgarten for a chance to win a free snack box!

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